Ghana To Achieve Poverty-Free Status With IAST, A UG Economic Wellbeing Project

Accra - Ghana’s Finance Minister, Hon. Ken Ofori-Attah on August 18, 2017, concluded the Economic Inclusion and Poverty Eradication Workshop which sought to device strategies to position Ghana as a poverty free country. The workshop engaged academia, industry and policy makers to explore the various technological approaches to agriculture and social fields that will assist the systematic eradication of poverty in Ghana.

In a statement read on his behalf, Hon. Ofori-Attah noted that Government through the 2017 budget has demonstrated its readiness to relieve the ordinary person of hardship and have also targeted the poorest group i.e. crop farmers with policies to improve their lot. The Government is committed to addressing the causes of hardship among Ghanaians and ensuring economic inclusion. “It is my hope that the output of this workshop will guide this effort for the betterment of our country”, he emphasized.

Through out the 5-day workshop, various presentations and contributions were made by experts and participants. Key areas that were focused on, were agriculture as a key to poverty eradication; with co-operatives and sports as complementing endeavours.

An outstanding discussion was Ghana’s ability to manufacture its own agriculture technologies. Making his presentation Dr. Emmanuel Asiedu, CEO of the Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology & Industrial Service (GRATIS) Foundation, stated that his organization has a mandate to “promote industrialization and the dissemination of appropriate technologies in all the regions of the country by developing and demonstrating marketable products and processes which will enable micro, small and medium enterprise to increase productivity, employment and the resultant multiplier effect on the economy”.

Its mission, he elaborated, is to research, design, develop, manufacture and market appropriate technology-based products and services for micro, small and medium enterprises so as to facilitate socio-economic and industrial development in Ghana and other African countries. Since establishment, Gratis has provided technical and entrepreneurial skills to Industry and for self-employment.As part of empowering rural Ghana, the organization has partnered with a local engineering companies like McHammah Engineering to achieve this mission.

Prof. Nkansah, Director, IAST also noted that agriculture is no longer simply the means of providing food for the population but with applied modern technology it can accelerate the development of the entire economy of the country thereby lifting the people from poverty to middle income status and beyond. “Agriculture is not a way of life anymore. Agriculture is business” which needs right strategic planning, dedication, carefully programmed implementation and technologies as well as think-alike minds to transform agriculture. Hence the establishment of agric estates.

He identified that by combining the resources of rural villages into one larger Agricultural Estate the economies of scale can be employed to harness the activities of the population by providing them with agricultural inputs, introducing and teaching modern agricultural technology and farming techniques and developing marketing services. “Growers, research, extension services and technology in agriculture are thus key to successful poverty eradication”.

As part of implementation activities, Dr. Noskim Atidigah revealed that the country has been divided into 10 blocks with 2 in the Northern Region. It is expected that 1 block will create 30,000 direct jobs, 300,000 direct jobs country wide as full delivery and 3,000,000 direct jobs by end of project. This should yield an annual revenue of 66,000,000 USD from 1 block, 660,000,000 USD countrywide as full delivery and 6,600,000,000 USD by the end of project.

Under the development plan, the project will focus on three main areas which are the Controlled greenhouse, irrigation field and animal husbandry. The Controlled Greenhouse initiative, will see to the production of foods such as tomato, cucumber, melon, okra, chili pepper on 200 hectors of land in the first 6 months. Food such as maize, yam, millet, apple, cashew, pawpaw and flowers will be produced on 500 hectors of land for the irrigation field initiative within the same period. For Animal Husbandry, fish, turkey, chicken, rabbit, cattle, goat, sheep, pigeon will be reared on 50 acres of land.

Prof. Nkansah in his closing remarks further noted that the project will start in full force in September and encouraged all participants, policy makers, government and general public to buy into the idea of practical solutions and innovative technological approach to a poverty free country.

The Provost, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, Prof. Daniel Asiedu commended the team for a successful workshop that will eventually lead to a fruitful implementation. “The success of this session shall be measured in how we strengthen the partnership between academia, public sector, private sector, finance and cooperatives representing non-included to systematically eradicate poverty. The recommendations, strategic plans shall be building blocks in our efforts to make life less of a burden for all Ghanaians”, he stated. He was positive that the workshop is“a symbol to tell the world that we are moving from the thinking-through-stage into the implementing stage”.

About EIPEP Workshop
The EIPEP workshop is an exclusive Ghanaian Solution designed to engage stakeholders in the general economic development of Ghana through the adoption of practical solutions and innovative technologies. It seeks to eradicate poverty in the long term. It is a cooperation between Bulaiza PLC, Federated Co-operative Multi-Purposed Society Ltd., and the IAST (University of Ghana). The workshop sought to be very useful resource and aid to policy makers and general government agenda for poverty reduction continues. The workshop was held between 14^th – 18^th August, 2017.

About IAST, University of Ghana
The Institute of Applied Science and Technology of the University of Ghana serves as a conduit to industry and communities to access knowledge, technical skills and solutions from academia. It serves as a channel for academia to find application for the research in real life while providing the platform for proof of concept of their ideas and research before full application and commercialization.